


Five Christmases

by Ball_Jointed_Dragon, SpaceKase



Series: A Collaboration of Trally [3]
Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: Childbirth, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Gen, M/M, T-preg, Trans Male Character, Trans Pregnancy, Trans Sal Fisher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28333329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ball_Jointed_Dragon/pseuds/Ball_Jointed_Dragon, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceKase/pseuds/SpaceKase
Summary: Snapshots of Christmases with the Phelps family.
Relationships: Chug/Maple (Sally Face), Sal Fisher/Travis Phelps, Todd Morrison/Neil
Series: A Collaboration of Trally [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2074743
Kudos: 19





	Five Christmases

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy! SpaceKase, here! As per tradition of the last few years, Ball Jointed Dragon and I came out of months of hiatus to write a Sal x Travis Christmas fic. It's still Christmas Day where I am, so Merry Christmas! If you don't celebrate Christmas, than I still hope you had a good day today!
> 
> I don't think there's a whole lot that's triggering in this chapter, save for the fact that we headcanoned a male character as trans in this. He gets pregnant and goes through with the pregnancy; the last prompt in this revolves around it. We would just like to remind everyone here that, regardless of how trans men handle their bodies and their identities--whether they get hysterectomies or not, whether they take t or not, whatever--that every single one of them is still a man. Anyone who doesn't agree with this or respect it can kindly stop reading what we write. We don't want you in our audience.
> 
> Enjoy!~
> 
> IMPORTANT EDIT: For whatever reason, I cannot add her, nor can she add herself, as co-creator of this fic. I apologize sincerely, and want to repeat: I did NOT write this by myself. Ball_Jointed_Dragon wrote Lights and Cookies. I wrote Bells and Tinsel. We both wrote Family.
> 
> EDIT V2: IT IS FIXED.

**_Bells_ **

“Welp, here it is!” called Travis, opening the door to their new apartment. “Home sweet home!”

Sal took in the room. In the corner was a kitchenette; the wallpaper from the previous tenant was peeling, revealing cracks in the walls. The one window, smack dab in the middle of the wall, was fogged over, covering up a view that was less than flattering. Somewhere within the apartment, he could hear the sound of steady dripping, telling of future plumbing issues.

“I know it’s not much,” Travis said as he closed the door behind him. “But it’s...uh…” Sal could tell that he was taking in the room, too. “Well, it’s not much.” 

“Maybe.” Sal didn’t bother trying to disagree. It wouldn’t do to start this whole thing off with any lies. “But at least it’s a roof over our head.” That much, at least, was true. It was certainly better than homelessness.

“Yeah! There we go!” Travis sidled up behind Sal, wrapping his arms around him.

They had nothing to their name. Every last penny scrounged between them had been used for the safety deposit on this apartment. All they had was a few articles of clothing, a scratchy old blanket, and an ugly light-up Santa sculpture that Travis had taken from a shop when no one was looking.

As the sun set, it was the Santa figurine that lit their apartment as the two of them huddled in their multiple layers beneath their blanket. Sal had spent their last five dollars on some hot chocolate at a nearby gas station. “This has got to be the worst hot chocolate I’ve ever had,” he commented after a sip. 

“I don’t know...I’ve had worse.” Sal smiled as Travis lowered the plastic mug from his face. The odd white foamy substance on top had left a moustache on his upper lip. “At least there’s tiny marshmallows in this.”

Sal chuckled as he leaned into his boyfriend. “Tiny marshmallows make all the difference.” 

Travis sighed as he watched the sun set from the window. Maybe it wasn’t much of a view, but at least they could see the pink and orange sky from here. “So, would you say this is the worst Christmas ever, or…?”

Sal firmly shook his head. “I spent the last three Christmases in prison, Travis. Before that, there were the first few Christmases after my mom died. I didn’t even care that Dad didn’t get presents or hang up decorations...it’s just that he was either passed out or too hungover to do anything.”

“Yeesh.” Travis shook his head. “Was gonna point out how I had to spend every one of my Christmases with Dad and his parents, all my crazy religious cousins. But I think that beats mine.”

Sal put a hand on Travis’s knee, rubbing the material of the cargo shorts he wore. How cisgender men could wear shorts in the middle of winter, he still didn’t know. “It’s not a competition, Travis. We both got baggage.”

Travis kissed Sal’s bare cheek, the one that didn’t have scarring on it. “You think that’s what makes us work?”

Sal chuckled warmly, tucking his head between Travis’s jaw and his shoulder. “It’s one reason, yeah.”

They stayed like that for a long time, oddly comfortable, considering the less than ideal situation. Travis perked up at a familiar sound from outside the window. “Do you hear that?”

Sal focused on his hearing, eyes widening as he realized what it was. “Church bells.”

“Churches are usually open, around this time. Welcoming the homeless and such.”

Sal had never been terribly religious, but the deep, booming sound lit something inside him. Something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

_Hope…_

Sal smiled up at his boyfriend. Their apartment was sparse and, frankly, kind of shitty. They had no family waiting for them; they had no money for food, let alone presents.

But they had each other. 

“Merry Christmas, Travis.”

“Merry Christmas, Sal.”

**_Lights_ **

This Christmas just had to be better than the last, Travis mused. It _had_ to be - they’d worked so hard in the span of a year to better not only themselves, but also their apartment, and the way they spent their money. 

Travis, for one, had gotten his construction job. The hazing was awful, in the beginning, but there were certainly coworkers that made it all worth it in the end. The paychecks helped pay for the rent, while Sal’s paycheck from the restaurant paid for food and small decorations from the store. 

As of right now, Sal was standing on a wobbly stepping stool; the stepping stool that made Travis’s heart jump into his chest whenever Sal’s balance almost failed him time and time again. Sal’s space buns were loose--he’d just gotten off work and had jumped right into decorating the apartment.

It went unsaid between them that they both wanted to try and make this Christmas at least a bit better than the last.

The living room now had curtains--red curtains that Sal had seen on a clearance rack, and curtains that would remain in their family for years to come. 

The curtains were a deep red, and Travis had found some cheap fabric to tie around said curtains to make it seem more festive. 

Their Christmas tree was just a shitty drawing of a tree--hey’d both agreed to skip the tree again this year, as they weren’t ready just yet to dump hundreds of dollars on a Christmas tree and the ornaments that would have to come with it. 

Other than those, Sal and Travis had cleaned everything up remarkably well. The apartment was warm, the food they’d eaten earlier was one of their better meals that year, and they were still together. 

Travis still felt a sense of smugness when he saw the ring on Sal’s finger gleam in the light every now and again.

As of right now, Sal was lifting a string of lights ever-so-higher, pressing a thumbtack into the wall and therefore keeping the lights in place. After doing so, he briefly brought his thumb to his mouth and stared at the lights as he waited for his finger to stop feeling as if he’d stabbed it.

He _had_ , earlier that day, but that wasn’t the point.

The point right now was to finish stringing up the lights. 

Travis had the rest of the lights twined around his arm, unwinding it as Sal asked for it. Up went the lights, twinkling and showing off their apartment in a warm glow.

For a moment, Travis could feel a warmth in his chest, the feeling of Christmas that he hadn’t felt since he was a child.

He didn’t have his mom or his dad anymore. He didn’t have all the expensive Christmas decorations that his dad used to put up around their house before lecturing Travis for hours about the ‘True meaning of Christmas’ before he’d hand over the presents. He didn’t have carolers showing up at their door, and he most certainly didn’t have any feast or family still that would come over and fill their small apartment with talk and laughter.

But he didn’t need any of that.

Once more, Sal’s balance shifted, and his left arm lunged out to catch his husband. Sal crashed into his chest, both letting out a grunt as they tumbled to the floor. 

The lights scattered on their line across the floor, one blinking out due to a mix of the hard fall and the toe of Sal’s foot smashing down on it.

Travis had the wind knocked out of him, and it was clear that Sal had ended up twisting his foot a bit as he winced. 

“Sorry,” Sal pushed himself up, glancing back at his foot. “Shit, i’m sorry. I’ll get the broom and clean this up.”

Travis caught his breath, and he, too, sat up, giving Sal a small smirk as he rested his hand onto Sal’s thigh. 

“Y’know, this is a _great_ start towards making up for falling on me.” he chuckled at himself, giving Sal a clear indicator that he was joking. 

Sal, however, seemed to have other plans, as he turned to face Travis and give a little smirk of his own. “Oh, really?” 

Travis kept gazing up at the blue-haired man, unable to stop himself from smiling, nor from turning a dark red. 

“Why are you blushing, Mr. Phelps?” Sal perched himself up properly on Travis, the lights illuminating him in just the right way (Then again, Sal _always_ looked good, in his opinion). 

Travis said nothing for a bit, before giving off a nervous laugh and sitting up completely. 

“We should finish the decorations.” He couldn’t meet Sal’s eyes, too embarrassed. 

Were they married? Of course, they had the certificate to prove it. They’d married each other last year, in the spring. 

The very thought of losing Sally again had daunted Travis, and he’d put a ring on Sal’s finger the moment he could. 

Yet in terms of... sexual things, he and Sal hadn’t had much opportunity, what with working for money, and then working to stop the fucking fernace from breaking down for the third time in the week during one of the coldest winters in years once they got home. 

There simply wasn’t enough time or energy for fun in that kind of way in a single day.

The embarrassment finally caught up to Sal, as well, and he got off of Travis as quickly as he could. Travis stood, putting a hand around his waist and helping him limp to a chair. 

“You must’ve twisted your ankle. Sit down for a bit and see how you feel later. I’ll finish putting the lights up, okay?”

Sal smiled, nodding a bit as he settled into the chair they’d gotten in a yard sale, easing his foot up to rest more comfortably. “Alright.”

“Good.” Travis smiled, turning around and picking up the lights. 

One could consider it a Christmas miracle that Sal didn’t argue with him about resting the foot and not helping.

Travis would gladly accept such a miracle, as he knew that he would likely not see something like _that_ for a long time.

With that, they fell into a comfortable silence, the tv running in the background. The lights shone brightly, warming the apartment with their shine alone--all except the one. 

And it was perfect.

**_Tinsel_ **

Tiffany Phelps had been in their lives for a whole three hours, and already chaos was reigning in the Phelps household.

They didn’t know her exact age; there was no way to know for sure. At that particular moment, they just knew she was old enough to start crawling.

“Oh my God!” Travis exclaimed with a grin. He held a camera in his hands; a thing that wasn’t old enough to be an antique, but old enough to be cheap. He kneeled, not taking the camera off of their new baby for a second as he snapped photograph after photograph.

“You think this is the first time she’s done this?” asked Sal, feeling just as excited. 

“It’s the first time she’s done it in front of _us_ ,” said Travis. It wasn’t that the tiny person’s past didn’t matter; of course it did. But coming into their care meant that she was starting a new life. “That’s good enough for me.”

“I agree.” Sal patted his knee. “Tif!” he called. “Baby Tiffany!”

She didn’t know her name yet; the parenting and baby books he and Travis had read said her brain wasn’t quite developed enough for that yet. For a few months, she wouldn’t really be speaking, just repeating sounds that people around her--her dads--would make. 

Still, the tone of his voice, high-pitched and airy, was enough to catch her attention. Her tiny mouth was open slightly, and her large dark eyes gazed up into his, completely attentive.

“Come on!” he said encouragingly. “Come to Daddy!”

His efforts were rewarded. He didn’t think he could grin any wider as the infant moved towards him on chubby arms and legs. The two men cheered as she reached Sal’s lap. He picked her up and pulled her into his lap, lightly jiggling her up and down. His heart melted as she smiled, starting to giggle. 

“Aw, shhhhoot,” said Travis. Sal chuckled; she couldn’t repeat curse words quite yet, but it was still cute that Travis was working on censoring himself, trying to be a good role model. “Out of film.” 

“Do you have anymore?” Sal asked. He supposed it wouldn’t be a big deal if he didn’t, but this seemed like a perfect photo opportunity.

“I think so. Hold on…” Travis left the room, and as Sal followed him with his eyes, he realized, with a frown, that there was something he’d overlooked; a blanket that covered the coffee table. Not a huge deal, but if Tif pulled at it, it might bring several other things on the table falling on top of her.

When retelling this story in the future, Sal would swear up and down that he only put her on the carpet for a split second, just long enough to bunch the blanket on the table enough to be out of her tiny grasp. 

It only took a split second for him to look at where he’d put her down and panic when he realized she was gone. 

“Oh, _Jeez…_ ” he hissed, scrambling to his feet. He swerved his head all over the living room in a state of panic. He found her, not near the coffee table, but at the kitchenette counter, where Travis had taped up some glittery gold tinsel. 

Tinsel that was now in Tiffany’s tiny curious mouth. 

“Tif!” Sal cried. “Tif, _no!_ ” It was easy enough to get to her, pick her up, and pull the tinsel out of her mouth.

The hard part was watching her tiny face scrunch up as she started to whimper.

Travis came back into the room to Sal gently shushing a suddenly crying baby. At the sounds of his footsteps, he looked up at him with a desperate look in his eyes.

Just what, exactly, had they gotten themselves into?

**_Cookies_ **

The further on they got in their lives, the more Sal seemed to be obsessed with Christmas. 

He bought decorations with what money he had spare, after he bought necessities and some non-essentials for himself, his husband, and their two girls. 

It had gone leaps and bounds from that first Christmas, with the snatched Santa light and their blankets.

As of right now, Sal had just finished up with the Christmas cookies. He’d placated his daughters by giving them a chocolate kiss, after which, they’d gone and bothered their other father, who had been hanging up lights in the living room. 

The oven warmed the kitchen, and Sal snagged a cookie for himself before he began baking the last batch of cookies. 

These ones were special, as they were just for him and Travis. It was a rule they’d made shortly after their first Christmas with both Tiffany and Baby. 

One batch of cookies would be for the kids, and the other would be for the adults. 

In previous years, Sal had included edibles, which they’d ended up sharing with Ash, Mabel, Todd and Neil. 

This year, Sal was just going to include more chocolate than the others.

Maybe.

No promises.

The soft cheer from both girls in the living room told Sal that Travis had finished putting up the tree, and that the girls would then get the chance to decorate it with the old tinsel and the new candy canes they’d bought from the store. 

His hands expertly rolled the dough into a smooth, flat expanse before he took out the cookie cutters. 

The girls got bells, so Travis and Sal would be getting snowmen. 

He hummed as he set the cut pieces onto a pan, taking the extras and mashing it back into a ball. He repeated this process until no dough was left.

Into the oven went the cookies, and Sal brushed his hands off onto the apron he wore. He heard loud laughing, and he headed to the living room to join his family. 

“Higher, Pop! Higher!” Tiffany squealed, smiling brightly as she put another candy cane onto a branch of the tree. 

Baby was at their feet, seemingly content with gnawing on a candy cane of her own and claiming that it was helping when asked by Travis if she’d like to put one up on the tree, too. Sal could tell that Baby had been gnawing on that candy cane for a bit, as one side of it was pointed. 

Travis looked over to Sal, giving him a smile. His eye, still healing from Kenneth’s attack the previous year, made guilt swell in Sal’s gut. 

It had been his fault that Kenneth had come and attacked Travis. 

His fault that Kenneth came to their apartment and tried to kill their daughters. 

Travis came over, Tiffany on his shoulders, and handed Sal an ornament, taking Sal’s other hand with his own and placing it over the top of the ornament. Travis gave him a smile, briefly rubbing his thumb over the back of Sal’s hand.

“I think it’s Dad’s turn to put something on the tree.” He said firmly, giving Sal a brief kiss (To which the girls gave a collective ‘Gross!’). 

The guilt fell away from Sal’s shoulders, and he returned the kiss with a bit more vigor than Travis was expecting. 

Sal felt Travis chuckle against his lips, before he pulled away. “I’d love to, Dear, but we don’t have a babysitter.”

He said this simply, laughingly, but Sal’s face turned a bright shade of red as he smacked his husband’s shoulder. “You’re terrible!” 

“You started it.” Travis winked, Tiffany getting her tiny fingers buried into his hair. 

“Did not.” Sal claimed, turning to the tree and placing the ornament towards the middle of the tree. “I was just giving you a kiss.”

“You said that last time.” Travis teased, whispering it in Sal’s ear as he carefully set their child down onto the carpet. 

Said child ran over to her sister to stop her from eating a decoration.

Sal smiled, reminiscing on how he and Travis had done the exact same just a few years ago. 

Travis used this distraction to sweep Sal into an embrace, earning a surprised gasp from the younger. Before any protests could be made, Travis was already kissing him. 

Quickly, Sal melted into the embrace, returning the kiss and wrapping his arms around Travis. 

Once they’d pulled away, Travis murmured, “Mistletoe.”

Sal glanced up, then burst into laughter as he saw a plastic mistletoe hanging just to the side of the tree.

Travis soon joined in, leaving their two daughters very, very confused (and grossed out).

**_Family_ **

It was midnight when Ash got the call. Her annoyance vanished quickly as she saw the contact on her new Appleberry phone. “Travis?” she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Is it time?”

“I...uh…” She heard his throat clear on the other end of the line. “Yeah, it is.” 

She slid out from under the covers, deciding not to bother getting out of her pajamas as she grabbed her jacket, shoes, and wallet. “You’re using the same hospital as last time, right?”

“Yeah, I am.” She smiled sympathetically. Even from here she could tell that the poor man was wringing his hands anxiously. “We’re all here; me and the girls. But...they can’t be in the delivery room, and I can’t leave them alone, and--”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she assured him. “Just take three deep breaths.” As she heard him start to do just that, she ended the phone call. As she left her apartment and made her way to her bike, she dialed another number on her phone.

This was a special occasion. Their extended family deserved to know what was going on.

“Hey!” she called. There was Travis. Tif sat on his right side; Baby had fallen asleep in his lap. She realized that Soda was sitting in a seat next to Tif; Maple and Neil were near a snack machine, chatting. Todd sat in the seat next to him, talking about something Ash was sure she wouldn’t understand. Whatever it was, it seemed to be calming Travis down, though at the sound of her voice he stood up. 

“Thanks so much for coming, guys,” he said with a tired smile.

“No problem, Dude.” Maple nodded, giving him a reassuring smile.

“We wanted to be here for you, since we couldn’t last time.” Neil put his hand on Travis’s shoulder, Travis seeming to relax more as the others nodded in agreement. 

Travis could remember that night--Baby wasn’t going to wait anymore, not even for her aunts or uncles. Sal and Travis ended up alone, having to corral their hyper kid to make sure she didn’t run off and ‘play’ with the hospital machines.

Ash patted Travis’s shoulder as she passed by, checking on the kids as she nudged Travis away with her hip. 

“Go, I’m sure he’s getting to be pretty far along by now.” She nodded her head towards the delivery room.

Travis gave his own smile in return, his own nod as he breathed out a, “Thank you.”

At this, Ash gave him a playful punch on his shoulder. “Hey, man, it’s no problem. Anything for you guys. Now get out.”

Once those words fell from her lips, Travis was gone, the door to the delivery room clicking shut softly as Travis nearly ran to join his husband’s side. 

Ash turned to the children, noting the sleepy eyes of Tif and the makeshift bed on the chairs. She took her jacket off, draping it over Tiff and encouraging her to rest against Ash, as she knew it would take a long time before Sal would even remotely be close to done. 

Baby gave a mumbled argument as she was adjusted to be more comfortable. 

“I’m sure you two will be more than excited to meet your new sibling,” she murmured, glancing over to the others and keeping her voice low to prevent the children from waking up and throwing tired tantrums.

“So, what do you guys think they’re gonna have?”

“Puttin’ my money on ‘boy,’” said Neil. “I think they’re due for one, after two girls.” 

Todd shook his head as he slipped his arm through Neil’s. “That isn’t how that works, Honey,” he tells him. 

“I agree,” said Maple, stroking Soda’s hair as her sleepy head gently landed in her lap. “I’m willing to bet it’s gonna be another girl.” 

Ash smiled. “How great would that be? Three girls.” 

The adults gazed fondly at children sleeping on top of them. “Todd,” Ash said, “would you and Neil ever think about having children?” 

Todd’s mouth opened before closing, looking like he was thinking about what to say. “We _have_ discussed it,” he admits. “No solid decisions have been made, though.”

Neil kissed Todd’s cheek. They could be shy about public displays of affection; they’d been a couple during high school in the Nineties, after all. Things had been different then. So it was kind of a treat to see. “No solid decisions’ll be made for a while. Things are kinda hectic, y’know?” 

Todd smiled fondly. “We _do_ have a full aquarium, though. I suppose you could call our fish our scaly babies.”

The women giggled at that mental image. Sleep deprivation was what made Ash decide to say “Fish have tons of babies, right? What if Sal has more than one?” 

A round of soft round of chuckling passed through the adults. Once it stopped, a new, heavy realization settled on them.

“Shit,” breathed Maple. “I hadn’t even thought of that…”

Neil was the one who gave a hapless shrug. “I doubt it; cases of twins are rare--anything more than that is even rarer.”

“True,” Mabel nodded, biting her lip before she spoke again. “But that doesn’t mean that it’s not _impossible_ for Sal to have twins, per se. I know he mentioned before that he has a history of twins in his family.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. Family history project, 9th grade.” Todd piped up, stretching. He’d been sitting in that chair for a good while. 

“Doesn’t having a history of twins make it more likely for you yourself to have twins?” Ash let her eyes wander to the girls, then the door. 

She could barely hear a muffled ‘FUCK’, and she brushed Tiffany’s hair back as she returned her attention to the conversation.

Todd gave a nod. “It does. I think we had a whole segment dedicated to it because the teacher had a twin that she ‘absorbed in the womb’.”

A collective shudder ran through the group--they all had hated that teacher, as she always used weird and gross methods of learning science, no matter the subject matter. 

“Just imagine if he had twin boys, though.” Neil gave a smile. “Double the trouble, going toe to toe with their older sisters.”

“You mean, ‘ causing more destruction wherever they go’, right?” Maple raised a brow, her lips curving into a smile as she glanced at her own child. 

“Sal and Travis are good parents. I’m sure they’d teach the kids to behave.” Todd glanced at the door as another muffled yell came from inside. 

“Tell that to Baby.” There was a collective laugh, the adults settling down as the time wore on.

“How long has he been in for?” Ash finally asked.

“Coupl’a hours. Travis held off on calling you because he knew you’d be asleep.” answered Neil, looking over to Ash before getting up and asking everyone if they wanted something from the vending machine down the hall.

“That, and sometimes people go through Braxton Hicks contractions. They’re kind of like...practice contractions,” said Maple with a grimace. “I went through that a few weeks before I had Soda.”

Right then, Neil brought bags of chips and candy and started handing them out. “Wasn’t sure what everyone liked,” he admitted.

“It’s fine,” said Ash. She wound up with a bag of some sort of gummy candy. She didn’t like how it stuck to her teeth, but right then she wanted something to do other than talk. 

It was about an hour and forty-five minutes later when Travis emerged from the delivery room, decked in scrubs and a medical mask. 

Ash, the only one who currently didn’t have a child sleeping on her, stood up. “Well?” she asked anxiously.

Travis pulled off his mask with a gloved hand, and when he lifted his face, there was a tired but genuine smile upon it.

“It’s a boy... _and_ a girl.”

It took a moment for everyone to realize the full implications of what he’d just said. Maple’s hands covered her mouth; Todd’s eyes widened. Neil’s grin grew wider. 

“I’ll be,” breathed Ash. “It _was_ twins.” 

“We didn’t have any ultrasounds,” Travis said as he started pulling off his gloves. “We wanted it to be a surprise.” 

“Hell of a surprise!” cried Neil, unable to contain his excitement anymore. The sound of his shout woke up Soda, Tif, and Baby. 

Travis crouched before his two daughters. “Girls, I’ve got news for you.”

“Is it over?” asked Tif, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“It is. He had twins.” He pulled his girls into a tight embrace. “You’ve got a baby sister _and_ a baby brother.”

The girls hugged their father as tight as their little arms would allow. 

It was another two hours before everyone could see Sal and the babies. Travis knew he should probably have waited longer, but he figured that just popping in quickly wouldn't hurt. 

Before the children entered, he held a finger to his lips, the universal sign for “Shhh.” Soda and Tif, old enough to know better, both nodded respectfully. Baby pouted a little, but reluctantly agreed. 

Years later, going through their photo album, Sal would swear up and down that he didn’t remember this photo being taken. But right then, with his mask off, everyone could see his tired, watery smile as he held two blanketed bundles close to his chest. One was pink; one was blue. 

“Hey, Honey,” Travis murmured as he took his place at Sal’s side. The older girls were able to peer over the hospital bed; their eyes shone in wonder. Baby was still too short, so Travis picked her up, supporting her on his hip. “Here’s Daddy, Girls.”

“What are their names?” whispered Ash, laying a hand on Sal’s other shoulder.

Sal spoke, completely un-muffled, for once. “Chrysanthemum Lorraine,” he said, kissing his new daughter’s head, “and Dante Henry,” kissing his new son’s. 

“For my mother and his father.” Travis risked leaning forward to kiss his husband’s cheek. “You did great, Sal.” 

Sal laughed, and the adults could all tell he was still a bit high on the drugs they’d used for his c-section and the endorphins from the birth. “Wasn’t sure my body could handle this again,” he admitted. “But I guess I was wrong. It was so worth it.” 

A round of congratulations rumbled up from the other adults. It was Todd who had the idea to snap a photograph of all of them before Sal fell back asleep. Ash was the one who lent her phone to a nearby nurse, asking her to take it.

Years later, the photo would appear in the album. The title was ‘Chryssy and Dante come into the world Christmas Day!’

The caption would simply say ‘Family.’


End file.
